Launch it with style in San Diego: Big brands choose the city to showcase latest innovations

From Charles Lindbergh’s famously record-breaking plane to the first sequencing of the human genome, San Diego has proved an amazing place to launch products and ideas that help bring the whole world together.

In just the past eight months, three splashy launch events from international brands have drawn the eyes of the world to San Diego. A quick look:

Rady Shell at Jacobs Park – iPhone 13, Apple

The spectacular Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, the new summer home of the San Diego Symphony, played a starring role last September in this latest iPhone reveal from Apple, whose product releases are arguably the most anticipated tech events on the planet. Besides the Shell, the event’s video also included beautiful views of the San Diego Coronado Bridge and the Downtown waterfront.

USS Midway Museum – “Top Gun: Maverick,” Paramount Pictures

As the birthplace of naval aviation — and home to the former Navy fighter-pilot school that inspired the original 1986 “Top Gun” movie — San Diego was the perfect place to host the world-premiere events surrounding the release of its sequel. Those May 4 festivities included a celebrity-studded red-carpet reception aboard the USS Midway Museum in San Diego Harbor. Gaggles of international media were on hand as star Tom Cruise swooped in for a landing on the carrier’s deck via helicopter. The movie’s subsequent premiere screening took place Downtown at the San Diego Civic Theatre.

Salk Institute – Cruise 2023 Collection, Louis Vuitton

For sheer spectacle, it’d be difficult to top the unveiling of the Louis Vuitton luxury fashion brand’s latest collection at the Salk Institute, perched dramatically atop the Pacific bluffs in Torrey Pines. The resulting visual feast was Louis Times 2: the often eye-popping styles of the House of Vuitton set against the stunning Modernist architecture of Louis Kahn. The New York Times called the May 12 show a “post-apocalyptic royal rave.” And the size of its international crowd affirmed San Diego’s standing as a prime place for world-class happenings.